120 huber's glass cell. 



depositing her egg at the bottom of it, and therefore with 

 every new royal egg, a new cell is made. If, however, we 

 consult Huber on this subject, we shall find him, as usual, 

 full of contradiction and inconsistency. On the loss of a 

 queen, he says, the bees select the common worms which are 

 destined to be queens, and proceed immediately to construct 

 the necessary cells, for which purpose they knock down 

 three of the contiguous cells. When and where was this cir- 

 cumstance ever witnessed by Huber ? We affirm that in the 

 construction of a royal cell, not a single common cell is ever 

 destroyed. The queen bee knows well the particular egg 

 which she is about to lay, and she almost invariably deposits 

 the royal eggs on the edge of the comb, and the bees con- 

 struct the circular royal cell around them. In the supposed 

 case of the bees converting a common worm into a queen, 

 they are made to sacrifice three cells, but then, where and 

 how are these cells situated ? The common bee is bred in 

 a horizontal position, the queen in a vertical one, therefore 

 the actual inclination of the comb must be changed, in 

 order to allow of the bees constructing a cell in that position 

 in which the queen is always bred. The actions of the bees, 

 however, during this creation of a queen, are according to 

 the description of Mr. Huber of a truly wonderful nature, 

 for on the completion of the royal cell, we are informed that 

 a bee kept its head more or less constantly inserted in it, 

 and that after an appointed time, he was released by another, 

 who also put his head into the cell, and there remained 

 until released by another, and so on, until the purposes of 

 this most extraordinary act were accomplished, but what 

 those purposes were, Mr. Huber professes his ignorance. 

 Finding however, that the opacity of the queen's cell as 

 constructed by the bees, was a great obstacle to the prosecu- 

 tion of his researches, Mr. Huber constructed a queen's 

 cell of glass, in order that by its transparency, he might be 

 able to ascertain the whole of the proceedings within ; now 



